All the way back during the Vietnam War in May 1965, doctor Le The Trung first grafted skin from frogs onto a 24-year-old girl suffering from burn injuries. “When I was in the former Soviet Union, training in the treatment of burns in 1961, I heard about the use of frog skin, but for the treatment of wounds,” he says. During this time, the so-called American War, “we had to handle a great number of victims of US bombs and incendiary chemicals,” recalls Trung.
In the early 1990s, scientists around the world began skin tissue culture in laboratories, with skin taken from the patients themselves. However, in spite of the success of this technique and others, high costs and complex procedures make them unviable options as popular methods of treatment. This is particularly true in third world countries like Vietnam, where between 2,000 and 3,000 are injured in fire accidents each year. Of the many who suffer third-degree burns, half die for lack of skin for grafting. Frog skin and composite membrane, now used widely to treat victims, are effective only in less severe cases.
Doctor Trung wears the hat of president of the National Association of Burns in Vietnam and has done numerous significant studies in the subject. He operates out of the National Institue of Burns in Hanoi. Forty-five British doctors and scientists are set to visit Viet Nam to learn the techniques of frog-skin burn treatment from Dr. Trung. No word, however, on possible bizzare side effects from having a patch of toad skin readily available for licking…
I was going to be really crude and make some references to genital skin and toad skin transplants but I decided against it, so you can figure it out yourself.
I did want to mention, in relation to the link about toad-licking… Bufotenine is scheduled because it was long thought that it was the chief cause of hallucinatory effects associated with licking of Bufo Alvarius…. untrue. Bufotenine is neurotoxic and is neurotoxic for a reason… defense. However, Bufotenine being in a class of hallucinogens called Tryptamines, it is not too far off chemically from 5-MeO-DMT, which also is present in Bufo Alvarius skin…. probably a mere accident of evolution.
At any rate, 5-MeO-DMT is not a scheduled compound though its relative, DMT is (and DMT exists in us endogenously). 5-MeO-DMT is the cause of the desired hallucinatory effects of toad licking… though I would caution you against actually trying it. You might have more fun sticking your mouth over someone’s car exaust pipe than being poisoned by Bufotenine. Little Pharmacology/Chemistry/Biology for you!
-Andy